The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-01-22
THE FEAR OF ITS BEING
VIA CTEn

1t is q curious within, this, which returns
every now and then, that the higher ed
ucation Of women should be discouraged
because in case of marriage it will all
be wasted" It is one of the bugbears
which Mary Wollstonecraft thought she
had demolished, and Margaret Fuller
after her; but it bears great deal of
killing. Those who still bring it up show
how little importance they really attach
to those functions of marriage aud parent
age about which they are continually
talking. II they really rated these duties
SO high, they would see that no amount
OF intellectual development could be
wasted in preparing for them.
The statistics of about seven hundred
collegiate slumn@, as tabulated by the
Massachusetts Bureau Of Statistics, show
that about quarter of the number were
already married; and as the average age
was but twenty eight, it could be well
assumed that the percentage married
wonld yet be largely increased. There is
nothing in the reports to show that any
OF these wives felt that their education
had been wasted; and if any of them we're
really SO foolish, they have perhaps grown
wiser already. It is not at all uncommon
for young men to feel in that same way,
year or two after leaving college, when
the door Of success or employment seems
as If it were locked on the wrong side.
A few years will, however, teach them
that well trained brain is good prep
| aration for any conceivable pursuit, and
that well stored mind is one Of the very
greatest blessings, whether a man is suf-
fering under the chagrin OF failure or the
ennui OF success. So many a woman, it
may be--though none of them seem to
express it-has for a moment distrusted
the value of her own training wher she
found herself, in Emerson's words:
Servant to wooden cradle,
Living in a baby's life;"
or Ia days when all her mathematics must
be brought down to Che arithmetic of
teething, and all her music must be laid
aside to attend to the musical instrument
OF sweeter tone that says, d" Mother" No
! doubt the function of motherhood takes
a dozen absorbing years out of many a
young woman's life. All the better for her
then if she has gained the material for ac-
tivity before that day comes. If an army
fno t,<1r. ~ IL
food, it only affords more reason for fill
ing up the haversacks and canteens in
advance.
1t is easy to point out few of the I'M
| answerable reasons why woman needs
the best possible education, even if she is
to be married the day after she takes her
last diploma. To begin on the lowest
| plane, there is often the material need OF
self-support, and of that which is much
more than self support, since it may in
volve the sustaining of children and even
OF husband. In late report of one of
our highest institutions for women, the
estimate was made by the directors that
about half the students apparently came
there to prepare for earning living, and
the other half from a simple desire for
self-improvement. In our changing soci-
ETY. it would not be strange if these two
halves were to shift places if the half
who expected to support themselves were
destined, after all, to be cared for by
others, and the half who felt sure of a
support were to be thrown on themselves.
Who can foretell? As to external for
tunes, at least, the hsppiest marriage is
but lottery. In our homely rural
phrase, d" 1t takes but about three gener-
ations from shirt sleeves to shirt sleeves"
We meet every day women bred to COM
petence, and perhaps married into lux
ury, who now need all that the trained
brain can do for them, as to mere mate
rial provision. At the first Normal School
exhibition l ever attended, thirty years
ago, l remember the calm brow, the clear
eyes, the rosebud cheeks, OF the class
poet; she seemed one OF those fair Great
ures for whom all life must be smoothed,
as it always had been; and when, ere
long, she was happily married, she ap-
peared one of those who retire forever
from the public gaze, and whose educa-
ton is called wasted. By no means: the
best of husbands may fail in business or
in health, and then we see of what mate
fial the wife is made. This woman has
for many years been the main support of
her own large household, and has in SO
doing developed literary talent, and an
especial genius for teaching, that have
made her books the inspiration and the
guidance of thousand homes. She is
but type of a myriad women all over
this country, whose education has paid
for itself over and over again, in the
mere material aspect.-T. W. Higginson,
IN Harper's Bazaar.
GIRLS FRIENDSHIPS.
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